Reform

Lately, I've had my first taste of a "bad day at the office".  I basically messed up so many things for the day, which had rather detrimental consequences if not for a good boss with a fallback plan.  Granted I wasn't the only one to work on the project (I had another friend), it did give us a better idea of how a Food Safety Research Lab is ran, albeit through the school of hard knocks.  I best keep my head down and dig deep!  That being said, work is still great and the experienced gained thus far has been much obliged.

The trio of Yen Fei, Yan Yao and I finally got together for dinner, after many months of delays and roadblocks.  Our initial plan was to gorge our faces in the awesomeness of which is Hickory Park, however the increasingly heavy rain got us a fifth of the way there (we had to travel there by foot from the bus stop).  With my head nearly drenched in rainwater, we opted for Texas Roadhouse instead.  Dinner with my two besties was great!  It's been only a few months, but the company was much appreciated and vaguely inexpressible.

As always, we had so many stories to share since our last get-together a few weeks back.  Yen Fei ranted, I ranted less, Yan Yao basically slobbed around with his Borderlands 2 addiction.  Of course, some of those stories were more personal.  And Yen Fei's account with her ex (the problematic douche) got me thinking about Joyce again.  So instinctively, I checked her Facebook wall (because how else can I not be a creep?  Yes, sarcasm aplenty).  Scrolling down her page, I felt a long forgotten sense of pain.  It honestly felt like my heart hurt, though only for a while.

But it wasn't out of spite or anger, or anything negative at all.  I think my heart hurts as of now because I miss her being my friend...

Silver lining, maybe?  I don't even know why I'm typing this as it sounds a little redundant...  Perhaps I just needed an outlet of expression.  

But I'm glad for feeling that.  Goes to show that I'm not a robot I still think about stuff outside of The States.  Awareness is a start.

Fading Listening - Shiny Toy Guns

Summer

I hope all is well!  I've been rather busy of late, having to work from 9 am until 4 pm during the weekdays.  It's tiring stuff, so I do apologize for not writing any sooner.  That, and blogging for ISC while working sporadically on the Insanity Workout while keeping track of my TV shows and manga, plus being hooked on Football Manager 2013...

At the moment, I'm working at the Meats Lab here in Iowa State as a lab assistant in the Food Science Research Lab, regarding food quality testing.  The majority of projects we work on are given by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which is rather exciting.  Besides the professor in charge, I get to work with three other undergraduate students and a graduate student, so work isn't lonely at all.  

Granted the first week of work involved mere inventory checks and paperwork (which is a bore...), I'm beginning to get into the lab-part of things now.  Recently I've worked on testing food samples for presence of E.coli and Listeria monocytogenes, which are common foodborne pathogens.  Other notable organisms tested were Salmonella enteriditis and Yersinia entericoccus.  Although this job isn't related to my intended career path in the clinical field of Microbiology, the experience gained thus far has been very rewarding nevertheless.

Getting to use fancy equipment like selective growth media, and PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) machine, which splices and amplifies DNA, is a really rewarding experience.  I can't wait to see what other projects are in-store.  I'm super stoked!

On the other hand, I had recently bought a TV from a graduating friend of mine.  It's a super nice 42" full HD TV, and my prospective housemates are extremely happy too.  It is however, currently sitting at another friend's place as I have no space to store it.  So he gets to test it out and enjoy watching cable for a while!!

Also, I've asked Justin (who's in Malaysia at the moment) to get a full-sized Jalur Gemilang flag, with the intention of draping it over the living room in our apartment.  Hopefully we can spruce up the apartment more once he returns in the Fall.

That's it from me thus far.  Take good care, peeps!

Chocolate - The 1975